About the author

Alison Banney is Finder's banking and investment editor, and has been writing about personal finance for more than six years. She has a Bachelor of Communications from Newcastle University, an ASIC RG146 Generic Knowledge Certification for financial advice and an ASIC RG146 Certification in Securities and Managed Investments.

What is the ING travel card?

While there's no formal ING travel card on offer, using the ING Visa Debit card overseas is a popular choice for many Australians. This card is linked to an ING Orange Everyday Transaction account and offers free overseas ATM withdrawals and no foreign transaction fees if you deposit $1,000 per month and make 5+ card purchases a month. ING will immediately refund any ATM fees incurred overseas back into your account, including any fees charged by the third-party ATM operator.

For this reason, it's ideal to use this card as your everyday transaction account, so you can easily meet this condition. Depending on how long your trip is, you'll likely be depositing this much on the card anyway to pay for accommodation, food and activities when you're overseas.

What is the NAB Traveller Card?

Unlike ING, NAB does offer a formal travel card that isn't a standard debit card linked to a transaction account. The NAB Traveller Card allows you to preload and store up to 10 different currencies at once, making it a convenient choice if you're hopping from country to country. You can store the most-popular currencies on this card including euros, pounds and US dollars.

ING vs NAB: Which bank offers the right travel card for you?

This card comes with the ING Orange Everyday transaction account. Option to link to a high interest savings account.

This is a prepaid Mastercard that you can preload with different currencies before you head overseas.

Card purchase fee

$0

$0

Overseas ATM fees

If you meet the account conditions (detailed above) all international ATM fees will be refunded straight back into your account. Otherwise international ATM fees apply, ranging from $2 to $5 for each cash withdrawal.

You can use all NAB-owned ATMs for free overseas. International ATM fees apply for other ATMs, ranging from $2 to $5 for each cash withdrawal.

Foreign transaction fees

All foreign transaction fees will be waived if you meet the account conditions (detailed above). Otherwise a 2.5% fee applies.

There's no foreign transaction fee when using a supported currency. A fee of 4% of the converted AUD value applies when using a currency that isn't supported.

Application

You can apply online for free. Your card will arrive in the mail.

You can apply online or in a NAB branch.

Currencies supported

Only AUD

AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD, CAD, HKD, SGD, THB, JPY

Use in Australia

You can use this card in Australia as your primary transaction account and pay no ATM fees at ATMs Australia-wide.

You can use this card in Australia, but you'll first need to convert the stored funds back into AUD. You can access all NAB ATMs for free, though ATM fees may apply at ATMs owned by different networks.

Currency exchange rates

Where a currency conversion is required (for example when using the card to make an EFTPOS purchase overseas), ING uses the Visa currency exchange rate at the time of transaction.

Where a currency conversion is required, NAB uses the Mastercard currency exchange rate at the time of transaction (unless the currency is already stored on the card). You can lock in exchange rates by preloading the card when exchange rates are favourable.

Minimum load amount

There is no minimum balance and no minimum load amount.

You must load at least $50 initially. After this there is no minimum load amount.

Maximum load amount

There is no maximum account balance.

You cannot hold more than $45,000 on the card.

Contactless payments

You can make tap-and-go payments without entering a PIN for purchases under $100 and can link to Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

You can make tap-and-go payments using your card, but you cannot use Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay with this card.

Daily ATM limits

Daily ATM withdrawal limit of $2,200.

Daily ATM withdrawal limit of $3,000.

Customer support

You can call ING from overseas for support with your account 24/7, though ING has no physical branches.

You can call NAB from overseas for support with your account 24/7. NAB also has physical branches all over the world.

Should I use the ING card overseas, or the NAB card?

Looking at the table above, both the ING debit card and the NAB Traveller card offer heaps of benefits when using the card overseas.

Using the ING card overseas

If you can deposit $1,000 per month into the ING Orange Everyday Account and make 5+ card purchases a month with the debit card, you'll pay zero overseas ATM fees and zero foreign transaction fees with this card. Unless you're going for a really short holiday, you'll probably deposit this amount or even more on the card anyway, to cover all your holiday costs and spending while you're away. This is a major benefit and something that the NAB Traveller Card doesn't offer.

If you don't think you can meet this deposit requirement or if you're only going away for a few days, don't worry, the ING card is still a good option for your trip. It just means you'll pay the odd ATM fee here and there when you need cash (if you don't use ATMs, then this won't affect you anyway). The ING card is also easy to manage on the go when you're travelling as there's an app available to keep track of your account, which is also available with NAB.

Using the NAB Travel money card overseas

If you don't want to commit to opening a new transaction account and are just looking for a card for an upcoming trip, the NAB Traveller Card might be better suited for this. It's really handy that you can store up to 10 different currencies on the card, which is a feature ING doesn't offer. You can load these currencies onto the card weeks or even months before you go away, meaning you can keep an eye on currency exchange rates and load up when the rates are in your favour.

Just remember if you plan on using ATMs while you're overseas that you'll still need to pay ATM withdrawal fees with this card (again, if you don't use ATMs this won't be an issue). And if you're using a currency that isn't supported you'll pay a large foreign transaction fee of 4%.

Alison Banney is the banking and investments editor at Finder. She has written about finance for over six years, with her work featured on sites including Yahoo Finance, Money Magazine and Dynamic Business. She has previously worked at Westpac, and has written for several other major banks including BCU, Greater Bank and Gateway Credit Union. Alison has a Bachelor of Communications from Newcastle University, with a double major in Journalism and Public Relations. She has ASIC RG146 compliance certificates for Financial Advice, Securities and Managed Investments and Superannuation. Outside of Finder, you’ll likely find her somewhere near the ocean.

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